Kiss Me Once in the Snow
by Francesca Jones
Summary: "Really? You came to rescue me and you didn't even bring a snow blower?" Snow-covered Future Lit. Fluffy one-shot. Complete.


**A/N:** This fluffy one-shot brought to you by Winter Storm Stella, and how much I wished I had my own Jess Mariano while I was shoveling snow. The title is from the wonderful song Every Thug Needs a Lady by Alkaline Trio. Please review if the mood strikes you; it makes me tremendously happy. Thanks for reading!

 **Kiss Me Once in the Snow**

"I hate snow." Rory said, forehead pressed against the cool glass of her living room window. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she jumped back and looked around frantically to make sure her mother hadn't heard her, even though the rational part of her brain knew that her mother was in Nantucket. She and Luke had gone up the week before, taking Rory's 7-year-old son Richie with them. The plan was for Rory to meet them there in a few days, after her PR events in Boston. Her flight was supposed to leave tomorrow. They were predicting that the blizzard was over, so hopefully Rory wouldn't be delayed. It was the longest she'd ever been apart from her son and she was missing him terribly.

Rory looked out the window again at the 20 inches of snow covering her sidewalk, driveway, and most of her car. She could barely see it's silver roof peeking out from where she'd parked it two days ago. Usually Luke came over with his snow blower and shovel and dug her out of the snow, but this time she was completely on her own.

"I hate snow." Rory grumbled again. She sighed in defeat and went upstairs to her bedroom to change. She looked through her closet and realized how completely impractical her wardrobe was for snow shoveling. She was Ms. Over-Prepared for every other possible situation, but she had absolutely no waterproof clothing. She put on a pair of full-length running leggings, glad that she was finally getting some use out of them- she didn't know what she was thinking when she'd said she was going to start running. She pulled on a pair of blue and gray knee-high socks, part of her Ravenclaw costume when Richie had gone as Harry Potter for Halloween. She slipped another pair of socks on over that before sticking her feet in an old pair of Uggs. They weren't waterproof but she had already worn them out so she had no concern about ruining them. She threw on a t-shirt before pulling a Yale sweatshirt over her head and leaving the hood up.

"Ok, that should do it." Rory said to herself, nodding her head. She went downstairs to the coat closet and looked in it doubtfully. How did she not have a waterproof winter coat? She lived in Connecticut her whole life, for Christ's sake. Why was she completely unprepared for winter? Fortunately Luke had left one of his work jackets there, probably anticipating this very scenario. Rory put on the oversized jacket and pulled on a pair of wool gloves to complete her ensemble. She took a deep breath and opened her front door, the winter wind immediately hitting her in the face.

She took a step out onto her porch, which fortunately was covered and only had a thin layer of snow covering it. Rory grabbed the broom she'd left there and swept the snow off her porch and front step. That was the easy part. Now she had to dig out the sidewalk and driveway.

Rory looked around and there wasn't a soul to be seen. She'd deliberately moved into a house at the very outskirts of Stars Hollow, on the other side of the Dragonfly Inn. Usually, she loved it. She was still close to the town. She could make the walk to the town center in under 15 minutes if she wanted, but she had almost half a mile between her and her next neighbor. She couldn't even see their car in the driveway right now thanks to all the snow. Kirk had been by earlier with the snow plow, but at least another 6 inches had accumulated since then and since she was the farthest away, she knew that meant that he did her street last. He probably wouldn't come by again for another few hours.

"Ok, Gilmore, you can do this." Rory gave herself a pep talk. "You're a strong, independent woman. You're a self-sufficient single mother who learned from the queen of doing things on her own. You can shovel a damn driveway."

Believing her own hype, Rory grabbed her snow shovel (Luke's snow shovel, thank goodness he'd thought that far ahead, though she wished he'd left the snow blower). "Ok, here we go."

Rory began shoveling a path to the driveway, but it was no easy task. There was so much snow that she had to shovel it in layers. She'd start with the top and work her way down. Rory soon got into a rhythm, but it was time-consuming and going much slower than she'd anticipated.

She had only gotten about half the way down the sidewalk when she heard an engine down the street. She looked up to see if maybe Kirk was back with the plow, but instead saw a black pickup truck slowly making it's way down the street. It came to a stop in front of her house the driver's side window slowly lowered, revealing Jess Mariano's grinning face.

"I heard there was a damsel in distress around here. You know where I can find her?" He called to her.

Rory smiled even though the cold weather made her face hurt. "Sorry, no damsels here. Just self-sufficient badass women who can shovel their own driveways!"

Jess rolled up the window and cut the engine, getting out of the truck. "You haven't even gotten to the driveway yet." He commented, pulling a snow shovel out of the bed of the truck.

"Really?" Rory asked skeptically, looking at the shovel. "You came to rescue me and you didn't even bring a snow blower?"

"Wow, what a picky princess! Sorry, your highness but this is all I got. I'll meet you in the middle." Jess said, smiling at her so she knew he wasn't really offended. Without another word, he started digging out the front of her driveway.

"What are you doing here? Who's truck is that?" Rory called. She felt foolish having to constantly yell to him, but there was too much snow between them for her to speak normally.

"Came in a couple days ago for Liz's birthday and got stuck in the storm. Luke called this morning and asked me to come check on you. And it's TJ's truck." Jess yelled back, not looking up from the task at hand.

"Well thanks! They totally screwed up this forecast. Six inches of snow, my ass."

Jess chuckled. He'd always loved it when Rory cursed. He waited for her to start shoveling again before sneaking a glance at her, looking completely ridiculous in her leggings and knee socks with her hood over her head and Luke's enormous jacket engulfing her. Just like Rory to be prepared for every possible contingency except winter weather.

"How's the book tour going?" Jess called as he tossed snow to the side with much greater speed and ease than Rory could muster.

"Good! Boston's the last stop. What about yours?" Rory asked, her breathing slightly labored. This was far more physical exertion than she was used to.

"It was great, but mine was just 8 cities on the East Coast. You're the one who went cross-country." Jess said.

After the success of _Gilmore Girls_ , Rory had signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster. She'd just published her most recent book, a book of essays focusing on her small town upbringing, and the way the town had rallied around her when she had her son. She'd titled it _It Takes A (Quirky) Village_ (Jess's response to that had been "You should've called it _Shared Psychosis"_ ). It was a big success, rising to #5 on the nonfiction bestseller lists. It was something she had in common with Jess, whose latest novel _Redemption, in a Vacuum_ was sitting pretty on the fiction charts and had been for almost a year. He was still self-publishing with Truncheon, but it was clear now that Dave Eggers knew who they were. Jess had even contributed to McSweeney's literary journal a couple of times. .

"I'm just glad they let me spread it out so I could come home between stops. I couldn't have handled being away from Richie for two months." Rory stopped, having finally reached the beginning of the driveway. Jess was already up by her car and starting to dig around it.

Rory took a moment to look at him. She was consistently amazed by how well he was aging. His dark hair was still long, peeking out from under his gray winter hat. He bit his lip in concentration as he shoveled. Rory had always loved that expression on him. His hazel eyes weren't on her, but Rory had to smile when she thought about the kindness she always saw there now. He'd grown up to be a good guy, and he'd ended up being a great friend to Rory while she wrote _Gilmore Girls_ and they'd remained close. He was also one of Richie's favorite people. Rory attributed that to the fact that Jess always brought him books completely inappropriate for a 7-year-old (no matter how many times Rory confiscated that copy of _Cat's Cradle_ , she kept finding it under Richie's pillow).

"How is the kid?" Jess asked. Rory blushed as she realized he'd stopped shoveling and had caught her staring, which was obvious by the smirk on his face.

"Wonderful." Rory said, a grin splitting her face. "A total handful. He got in trouble in math class the other day because all he wanted to do was read a book he'd smuggled in from the house."

"A kid after my own heart." Jess said, returning to shoveling. "What book?"

Rory made a point of not answering until Jess looked back up at her so she could see her withering stare. " _Old Man and the Sea_."

Jess laughed loudly at that and raised his hands in defense. "Hey, don't look at me. I have no idea how he got that."

"Sure you don't." Rory grumbled good-naturedly, returning to her own shoveling.

They continued in amicable silence for awhile, until snow started to fall again. Rory looked up at the gray sky and screamed, "Seriously?!" She threw her shovel to the ground in a huff.

Jess chuckled and said, "Keep going, you big baby. We're almost done."

"I am not a baby." Rory said with a pout, but she picked her shovel back up and did as directed.

"Hey how's that girl you were seeing?" Rory asked. They were close enough now that they could talk normally. "Molly?"

"Holly." Jess corrected. "That's done, for a few months now. Heard from baby daddy recently?"

Jess was referring to Logan, of course. After his marriage to Odette had ended in divorce, he had started pursuing Rory again. Rory had conflicting feelings about it, but had given it a chance for Richie's sake.

"File that under Ancient History." Rory said dismissively. She _had_ given it a shot, but realized very quickly that she and Logan had nothing in common anymore besides their son and that she could give Richie a fulfilling life and a 'real' family without being involved with his father.

"Huh." Jess said thoughtfully. Rory looked at his face and he looked like he wanted to say something, but he just kept shoveling.

"What?" Rory asked. When Jess shook his head, she laughingly repeated, "Jess, what?"

"Just…" Jess started, holding his shovel upright and leaning on it. "When's the last time we were both single at the same time?"

Rory let out a whoosh of air as she thought about the question. She was glad that the cold had already turned her cheeks pink so he couldn't see her blushing.

"Wow, I guess...right after I had Richie?" Rory asked, knowing that's when it was. "Huh."

"Yeah." Jess said, smirk returning. "How about that?"

Jess studied Rory's face and knew she was blushing even though her cheeks were already pink from the cold. He'd always loved making her blush. He'd loved being Rory's friend these past seven years. They complemented each other well, bounced book ideas off each other, and made each other laugh. But it was him and Rory, and there always felt like there was something else brewing under the surface. He hadn't pined, and she hadn't either, but Jess couldn't help but wonder if she'd been thinking of it the same way he had. So he decided to ask her.

"Have you ever thought about me and you...being an us again?"

"Yeah." Rory said softly, nodding as she recalled. "When Richie was three and I found that lump on his leg, remember?"

Jess remembered perfectly. He'd been waiting at her mom and Luke's house for Luke to get back from the diner when she'd burst in, absolutely freaking out because she had to take Richie for a biopsy. He'd calmed her down by holding her hands and telling her stories about all the times he'd gotten in trouble as a kid. "You have no idea what's going to happen, Rory. But you'll love him and take care of him, and that's all he cares about right now." He'd told her seriously. When the tumor had come back benign, Jess had been the first person Rory called after Lorelai.

"You were dating that Women's Studies professor at the time though." Rory said. "I didn't want to mess with that."

"Melanie." Jess nodded. "She was ok. She didn't think my story about stealing the baseballs was funny."

"What?" Rory asked incredulously. "That's a great story!"

"I know, right?" Jess said, smiling at the memory. "A couple years ago after you published your second book, when we were both in New York at the same time."

"We had readings scheduled in the same bookstore, two days apart." Rory recalled with a smile. She couldn't believe how warm she felt considering she was standing in the snow. They'd spent the day together in New York City, just like they had in high school. They'd scoured bookstores and record stores, ate hot dogs in Washington Square Park, and Rory had even talked him into going to the Statue of Liberty with her even though he'd complained about how lame it was the whole time.

"Ugh." Rory said, wrinkling up her nose. "I was dating that doctor who clipped his toenails in bed."

"People should be executed for that." Jess said seriously. He looked down at realized that there was still a few feet of snow separating them and he quickly shoveled it out of the way so they were standing toe-to-toe.

"Hi." He said, quietly.

Rory pushed her hood down so she could look at him. "Hi."

Jess watched in wonder as the snowflakes started landing in her brown hair and on her eyelashes, making her look even more beautiful than usual. Jess lifted a gloved hand and brought it to the side of Rory's neck.

"Hi." He repeated dumbly.

"You said that already." Rory said, sounding just as dumbfounded.

Jess nodded. "Ok."

He pulled her closer and kissed her gently. Practically in tandem, they each dropped their shovels so they could reach out for the other. Jess put a hand on either side of Rory's face and she wrapped her arms around his midsection. His lips were cold, but that didn't stop every part of Rory's body from flooding with warmth as they pressed against each other.

They pulled apart, breathless. Jess tucked Rory's hair behind her ear and kissed the chilly tip of her nose.

"I love the snow." She whispered. Jess didn't respond. He was still looking at her intently with that smirk on his face.

"Want to come in?" Rory asked. "I have some ice cream."

Jess laughed. He picked up both shovels under one arm. With his free hand, he took Rory's and said, "Leave it to a Gilmore to want ice cream in a blizzard."

Hand in hand, they went in the house as the snow continued to fall.

 **The End.**


End file.
